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When I was six years old, my mother got me and my two older brothers a Game Boy Color and corresponding copy of Pokémon each. My oldest brother got a red Game Boy and Pokémon Red, the next one got a blue one and Pokémon Blue, and I got a yellow console with Pokémon Yellow. I remember the little huddle we had away from the adults afterwards where my brother showed me how the game worked and explained how we could trade our monsters with each other. My eyes lit up as I not only fell in love with the cute little Pikachu that followed my every move on the screen, but as I realized that I’d be able to play this on my own when I wanted to, then connect to and play with my brothers when we were all able. I wish I could say it became a lifelong tradition and we all still play today, but even if it only lasted a little while it was a clever gift that made great use of gaming’s ability to not only bring people together, but to dynamically transform solo playtime into shared time together, and back again, so you can always feel connected to people, even when playing alone.

So, to celebrate the holiday season, we want to know: what are some of your favourite gaming-related Christmas stories from over the years? It could be anything, from something you gave or got, to a casual game helping break the ice during an awkward family dinner, or gaming providing a way to bond with a younger relative.

From all of us here at GBAtemp, we want to wish you and yours a merry Christmas and a happy new year!

 

[CannonFoddr]

LOL - I must be old....
Everyone talking about Gameboys etc as their favourite Christmas gaming memory... but I remember how over the moon I was when I got my first ever Electronic game.

Anyone remember 'Electronic Battleships' ??? - & I'm talking about the ORIGINAL version not the updated version

 

[MetoMeto]

Metroid Fusion + GBA SP = Happyness

My first ever encounter with Metroid actually.

 

[gamesquest1]

I loved getting banjo kazooie and rushing to reach the Christmas level for Christmas day while my sister got ocarina of time and was fighting over who got to use the n64

 

[lordelan]

Obviously the advent calendar from my signature which I still haven't found yet.
Bittersweet.

 

[nine0nine]

going in to town with 40 quid to buy other people Christmas gifts, getting off the bus, seeing Link to the past in the first shop window, buying it and going home on the next bus.

 

[PoiRan]

I remember in 1988 hooking me and my brother's new Amiga 500 to my parents Hifi-system, the large 28" TV, and listening to Bubble Bobble, Menace, and Giana Sisters booming out of the speakers. I previously had a Commodore 128D which I also remember fondly.

What I remember most is more recent (2019) though, I got my kids an unpatched Switch in great condition, box and all + pro controller and 2 new extra joycons I managed to squeeze into the box. They had been nagging me for over a year and were jubilant as they opened the present.

 

[BlackZero500]

They are just fake holidays invented by political and a long in Egyptians around 3,000 B.C.E for birthday. Xmas celebrated was actually dates all the way back to the Roman Empire in 336. Those are part of politics.

And I don't gave video games to my kids at all until they are older enough. Many kids I watched at someone's else had PSX, PS2, and etc when they were 7,8,9 and maybe 10 years old and they started to abandon it, damaged, dust on them, messed the controllers wires up. Those systems were very expensive. No.

I gave my kids who wants to play video games as gift when they are over 12 years old and teach them how to take care of them responsibility because it cost money. Many parents don't understand. Not kids's faults, its parents's responsible. Just like they got puppy for kids under 10 years old. Heck no! The puppies are not toys. The console are not toy. Same thing.

I am not part of those false things. To your questions, I got a gift from my money and sometime from anybody from any months, and spend time with family, true friends and relatives every months as much as I can to cherish our lives. I watched and noticed those those people don't get together very much until birthday, xmas, and other false holidays. Disgusting and sadness.

Wow. your kids surely hated you. You are the type of person that cant be happy. Yeah they are made up days, like all holidays or even all days at all. Everything we use to measure time or other things or even memorate things is made up. And what about it? This life is hard man. Draw happiness from wherever possible. Man if id have the money for it i would make a big thing out of everything, birthdays, christmas, name days, easter, equinoctium and what nots.

To Topic:

My fondest memory of gaming related Christmas is when i finally got the PS2. I got a Yu-Gi-Oh! Game with it (was a ps1 game though ^^") and Final Fantasy X. Not because i knew the franchise, but because it looked nice and was on Platinum (for those too young to know, Platinum Games where kinda the games that sold well and now are reduced to a price of 20€ to sell some more). I really wanted to Play Dark Cloud, but the game was nowhere to be found(got it a few years later though) so i had to settle with this. When i startet the game the first time i did not expect anything. Man was i blown away. It was the first big RPG of that kind i ever played. I was hooked! I played till i dropped from exhaustion. Wake up with the game still running and the controller beside me. It was a great time.

 

[spotanjo3]

Wow. your kids surely hated you. You are the type of person that cant be happy. Yeah they are made up days, like all holidays or even all days at all. Everything we use to measure time or other things or even memorate things is made up. And what about it? This life is hard man. Draw happiness from wherever possible. Man if id have the money for it i would make a big thing out of everything, birthdays, christmas, name days, easter, equinoctium and what nots.

You are very funny. I give my kids anything for any months and their life are important before me.

Go back to the topic, thanks.

 

[Obveron]

Getring Super Mario Brothers 3 from Santa, and playing it that day for the first time.

 

[KNOREN]

Play Diddy Kong Racing with my mom when I was a kid

 

[Deleted member 545414]

I rarely get Christmas presents that were gaming related, but this was definitely my favorite one:
It was December 24. After having a ridiculous large Christmas feast, it was off to bed. The next morning, on Christmas Day. I find several things on the ground. As usual there were candy and chocolate, and numerous toys. As I looked around, I saw a strange looking box. It was the newly released Nintendo 3DS, along with Super Mario 3D Land (a game I didn't really like), and Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon. The following Christmases, I got new games, including Ocarina of Time 3D, which eventually leads to me to the Hombrew Community and I hacked my console and to this day, it is the reason I am able to send this message.

 

[playstays_shun]

PS2 by far

my mom went through hell and high water to get it at a Toys R Us.

waited in line an hour or so before they opened in the cold, they turned every one away, she said to double check and they literally had one unit off the freight truck

I couldn't believe I got it Christmas of 2000.

its still the fatty I use present day. Has the first no swap mod chip in it (got it sent off back In the day). The laser is kind of on the fritz for PS1/blue disc PS2 games but the DVD drive still does work and I have it FMCB'd now with an OEM network adapter gutted to accommodate SATA drives.

 

[Humanfly138]

Would have been about '93/'94 and was given NBA Jam and X-Men for Mega Drive. Easily played 12hrs non stop and ended up with a headache like I'd been shot in the back of the head. Only other present I remember was a massive die-cast Ferrari F40 because I was obsessed with Turbo OutRun and Test Drive II: The Duel

 

[Rafciu41]

2011 - I got my first game from Skylanders Series "Spyro's Adventures" on PC

 

[slaphappygamer]

The year we got the NES with ROB. It was such a step up from atari2600. There were three of us at the time and our mom said this was a gift for everyone. We rarely faithful over it as we knew it could be taken away. That was some Christmas magic, right there. My dad liked duck hunt. Me and my brother likes gyromite. My sister likes this Mickey Mouse capades game and excitebike. My mom didn’t like the console, but she liked the quiet time for herself. Funny, I just realized my family dies that now too. I game with the kids and she gets tine for herself. See, it’s a win win.

 

[BlazeMasterBM]

I always had to borrow my older sister's DS if I ever wanted to play video games, but one year my parents got me a DS for Christmas with New Super Mario Bros So then I could leave her alone

 

[Cha0tic]

Getting a gamecube and smash bros melee

 

[Haizum74]

1984, unboxing my first computer, the huge Dragon 32. Tape inserted into the cassette player and the magical 5 letters......CLOAD

 

[TempestoGod]

Probably my "New" 3DS XL in 2016. Yeah, I got it five years late, but to be honest, I never really had much of an interest in the DS/3DS family -- that is, until Sun and Moon were announced.

For a home console, I'd say it was probably my Sega Genesis I got back in 2017. It's a pain to set up sometimes on my TV, it is nonetheless a fun console and one of my favorites.